LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Slielf..0.7C-'A 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



His Royal Highness 

THE COMTE DE PARIS 



GENEALOGY 



Incidents of the Lives 



ORLEANISTS. 



x^i^oiF'. iL^iri^r:^. 



Cnpyriglit Scpieiiiber , /Sgo, by IVm. Co.v. — All rights reserved. 



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1890. 

NEW YORK: 

SAB IS TON & MURRAY, 

916 Sixth Avenue. 



THIRTY-FIVE CENTS. 



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d^^^ ^.....^^ A<si^^ 



H. R. H. 

THE COMTEDE PARIS 



GENEALOGY 



D'ORLEANS FAMILY 



STIRRING INCIDENTS. 



WEIRD SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET. 

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[THE WBRAtY]) 
OFCOHGtEsS j 



INTEODUCTION. 

At the time when the Comte de Paris is about 
to pay us a visit, it is not uninteresting, even 
setting aside all considerations of a political 
nature, to sum up the genealogy of this descen- 
dant of the Bourbons, who would ascend the 
throne of France (admitting that the country 
called him) under the title of Philippe VII. 

COMTE DE CHAMBORD'S DEATH MAKES COMTE 
DE PARIS DIRECT HEIR. 

By the death of Henri Dieudonne, Duke of 
Bordeaux, Count of Chambord,* the male line of 
the oldest branch of the royal family of France, 
issue of Louis XIV., became extinct. The only 
legitimate descendants of this monarch in a di- 
rect line, are the Bourbons of Spain and Italy ; 
but as these princes renounced, about two hun- 
dred years ago, their French nationality, in order 
to become sovereigns of foreign countries, they 
are excluded from the royal lineage of France 
by their own acts and by the effect of the laws, 
as completely as by the solemn declarations of 
their ancestors, which have been appended to 
the treaty of Utrecht, The French law^ ex- 
pressly excludes from the privileges of French 

* Born the 29th of September, 1820. Died the 24th of 
August, 1883, [See the Chronological Table.] 



10 

nationality all persons who have acquired a 
foreign nationality, and the first condition re- 
quired of the civil status of a French prince is 
that he be French. It is therefore evident 
that if any pretensions to the rank and condi- 
dition of French princes were put forward in 
their favor by blind partisans of legitimacy, 
they would be illusory and without founda- 
tion. 

The first in order as legal successors of the 
royal family of France are the descendants of 
Philippe of Orleans, son of Louis XIII., and 
brother of Louis XIV., and the first place in 
the Bourbon family passes by right, in France, 
to the Comte de Paris, the head of the branch 
of Orleans. This fact was perfectly recognized 
by the Count of Chambord when he received 
the Comte de Paris in 1873 as his successor. 



II. 

COUNT de PARIS' GREAT-GRANDFATHER 
PHILIPPE-EGALITE. 



THE FIRST SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 



He Votes For Death ! — His Own Death on the Guillotine. 



It will suffice to retrace Id broad lioes the 
career of the great-grandson of the Eegent, 

LOUIS-PHILIPPE-JOSEPH, DUKE D'ORLEANS, 

born at St. Cloud, in April, 174T, better known 
by the name of Philippe- Egalite. Ever since 
the year 1T71, we see him acting in opposition 
to the court and signing the " protestation of 
the princes " against the dissolution of parlia- 
ments. Then rebutted by Marie-Antoinette, 
who had for him an instinctive antipathy, he 
takes openly, in 1776, sides against the queen, 
whom he accuses of secretly favoring the in- 
trigues directed against Louis XVI. Then 
comes, after a period of idleness and dissipa- 
tion in England, the affair known as the 
Collier de la Reine, when he takes an active 
part in propagating scandalous suggestions 
which compromise Marie- Antoinette. In 1787 

2a 



12 COMIE DE PARIS 



he appears in the assembly of the notables, 
and makes himself remarkable by the violence 
of his opposition. Made Grand Master of Free 
Masonry, he acquires a degree of popularity 
which procures his election to the Etats Gene- 
raux, and is applauded by the crowd assembled 
to see the procession pass through the streets 
the day previous to its opening. He is one of 
the first members of the nobility who join the 
deputies of the districts, and contributes to 
the transformation of the Etats Generaux into 
a National Assembly ; finally we find him in 
the front rank of every revolutionary mani- 
festation, and he is henceforth considered by 
the court as aspiring to the crown. Incapable 
of acting such a part, having neither sufficient 
tact to pursue it without compromising him- 
self, nor sufficient force of character to throw 
off the mask, and fearing the consequences of 
his acts, he retires to England, there to await 
the turn of events. He had a party, attached 
to him by reason of his great fortune, and for 
awhile his champions talked aloud of raising 
him to the power ; but his weakness and in- 
capacity paralyzed their designs, and he limited 
himself to playing a secondary role in the 
clubs, amongst the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, 
in the district sections, which he frequented as 
a courtesan of popular favor, of whom he ex- 
pected everything without being able to impose 
a single wish. At length he was elected to the 



HIS GENEALOGY. 13 

Convention, where he took his seat on the 
Mountain (radicals' side) and voted for the 
king's death, accompanying his vote with the 
following commentary : "Entirely devoted to 
" the accomplishment of my duty and convinced 
" that all those who have assailed or who shall 
"assail liberty are deserving of death, I vote 
"for death!" 

This vote, far from aiding the views of 
Philippe-Egalite, was reproached him by all 
parties, and aroused among none more indig- 
nation than amongst the revolutionists them 
selves. He expiated it on the scaffold. 

Brought before the revolutionary tribunal, 
as having aspired to ascend the throne and 
conspired with General Dumouriez, he was con- 
demned to death. Then he requests that he 
may be immediately executed, and the same 
day his wish was carried out (6th Nov., 1793). 
When he was marching to his death the 
Abbe Lambert approached him with a respect- 
ful countenance and full of feeling. " Egalite," 
said he, "I come here to offer you the sacra- 
' ments, or, at least, the consolations of a 
* minister of heaven. Do you wish to receive 
' them from a man who renders you justice 
' and who bears for you a sincere commisera- 
' tion ? If you do not desire my ministry as a 
' priest, can I render you as a man any ser- 
' vices for your wife and your family ? " 
' No," replied the duke ; "I thank you, but I 



14 COMTE DE PARIS : 

" do not wish any other eye than my own on 
" my conscience, and I have no need of any 
'' one to help me to die as a good citizen." A 
member of the tribunal having come to ask 
him whether he had no revelation to make in 
the interests of the Eepublic, " If I had known 
" anything against the safety of the country," 
replied he, "I would not have waited until 
"this hour to say it. Moreover, I do not bear 
" any resentment against the tribunal, nor even 
"against the patriots. It is not they who 
" wish my death, it comes from a higher 
"authority," and he remained silent. On the 
6th of November, 1793, at three o'clock, they 
came to take him to the scaffold. He marched 
with head erect, a proud look, with a firm and 
assured step, and never exhibited as much as 
on this supreme day the nobility and the dig- 
nity of his rank. He had become prince 
again through the sentiment of having to die 
as a citizen. While passing near the Palais 
Eoyal he regarded for a long time the windows 
of that dwelling where he had fomented all 
the germs of the Eevolution, tasted all the 
disorders of his youth and cultivated all the 
attachments of the family. The inscription, 
"National property," chiselled over the door 
in lieu and place of his royal escutcheon, made 
him understand that the Eepublic had divided 
his fortune before his death, and that this 
palace, with its gardens, would no longer offer 



HIS GENEALOGY. 15 

protection even to his children. That image 
of the poverty and of the proscription of his 
race hurt him more than the axe of the 
executioner. He bowed his head. The aspect 
of the crowd which covered the place of the 
Ee volution, and the roaring of the drums at 
his approach made him hft his head lest some 
one should ascribe his sadness to weakness. 
In approaching the guillotine, as the priest 
continued to press him more firmly to accept 
the resources of his ministry, "How can I 
" in the midst of this crowd and of this noise ? 
"Is this the place of repentance or of cour- 
" age ? " replied the prince. Having descended 
from the wagon and mounted the scaffold, the 
executioner's aides wished to take off his nar- 
row and tight fitting boots. " No, no, he said 
" to them with indifference, you will take 
" them off more easily afterwards. Be quick! 
"be quick!" He regarded without blanching 
the glittering steel. He died with a security 
which resembled a revelation of the future. 
As a republican, this prince has been calumni- 
ated by all parties ; by the royalists, because 
he was one of the greatest fomentors of the 
revolution ; by the republicans, because his 
death was one of the most odious instances of 
ingratitude of the Republic ; by the people, be- 
cause he was a prince ; by the aristocrats, be- 
cause he had made himself one of the people ; 
by the factions, because he had refused to lend 



16 COMTE DE PARIS 



his name to the alternating conspiracies against 
the country ; by everybody, because he desired 
to imitate that suspicious glory that is denom- 
inated the " Heroism of Brutus." Perhaps he 
dreamed a moment of the royal crown, voted 
by acclamation, but he was not slow to com- 
prehend that the revolution would crown no 
one and that there would be dragged down 
with the throne all pretenders and all surviv- 
ors of royalty. He repented then. The mis- 
fortunes of Louis the XVI. touched bim. In 
good faith he desired to become reconciled to 
the king and to sustain the constitution. The 
king received him, but the insults of the cour- 
tesans and the antipathies of Marie- Antoinette 
repulsed him. 

In January, 1792, he presented himself at 
court to pay his respects to the king. The 
table was laid, and all the courtiers were pres- 
ent in large numbers. He was scarcely per- 
ceived when the most outrageous epithets were 
heard. "Take care of the dishes!''* they 
cried on all sides as if they feared that poison 

*Iii allusion to his gi'eat-grand father, the Eegent, who was 
accused by the court of Louis XIV. of having poisoned the 
Dauphin, his son, his son's wife and grandson, the four 
having died in the same year shortly after one another. 
Although it might be supposed that the Regent had rea- 
sons for getting rid of those who stood between him and 
the throne, and as he had a laboratory where he could se- 
cretly prepare his poisons, yet history did not adopt this 
theory, which we must likewise consider calumnious. We 
should like to be able to say the same respecting the inces- 



HIS GENEALOGY. 17 

might have been put into them. They knocked 
against him, trod on his feet, and compehed 
him to retire. When descending the stau-case, 
they spat upon his head and clothes. He left, 
justly indignant and more irritated than ever, 
thinking that the king and the queen had pre- 
pared for him this humiliating scene. The 
king had had nothing to do with it, but on the 
other hand he did nothing to palhate it. The 
queen was secretly flattered by this outburst 
of her favorites and by the humiliation of her 
enemy. 

He then espoused extreme opinions as a 
safeguard. He threw himself into them in 
desperation. He found only shadows and the 
injuries of the popular leaders who would not 
pardon his name. He died without addressing 
a reproach to that cause and as if the ingrati- 
tude of republics was the civic crown of their 
founders. Unhappily for his memory, he be- 
came a judge of Louis XVI., and in a trial, 
where nature should have rejected him by rea- 
son of the ties of blood, he voted for death. 

tuous relations he was suspected of having with his own 
daughters. Michelet, the great historian, takes up this 
view which was adopted by all Europe. Such we think 
could hardly have been the case with Mile, de Valois and 
the Abbess de Cbelles. but it is only too probable as regards 
the Duchess de Berry, whose profligacy scandalized even 
the corrupt court of her father, the Regent. 

(For further details, which are too repugnant to be 
given here, see the memoirs of Mme. de Caylus, Duke de 
St. Simon, etc.) 



18 COMTE DE PARIS : 

The people in striking him, punished him less 
than posterity. His life, a disordered one at 
the beginning, tragical in its endings, com- 
menced as a scandal, was continued as a plot 
and finished as an act of resignation. He re- 
habilitated himself to a certain degree in the 
eyes of the mob and in the eyes of history by 
the firmness of his attitude before his judges, 
and by the dignity of his resignation in the 
face of death. But the party of legitimate 
monarchy has never pardoned him ; his mem- 
ory is odious among his peers, and his de- 
scendants have been the more branded with 
the original stigma, seeing that the son was a 
repetition of the father, and that the role of 
Louis-Philippe viewed in connection with 
what followed, has been justly compared — in 
taking into account the difference of the re- 
spective situations— to that which Philippe- 
Egalite played in the first revolution. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 19 



III. 

THE COMTE DE PARIS' GRANDFATHER. 
liOUIS-PHILIPPE I. 



SOLDIER, PROFESSOR, PHILOSOPHER, TRAVELLER 
AND KING. 



His Visit to America. — His Accession to the Tlirone. 
His Children. 



OTHER SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET. 



Louis -Philippe, son of the preceding, was 
born in Paris, at the Palais-Royal, the 6th of 
October, 1Y73. His mother, Louis-Marie- Ade- 
laide de Bourbon, was herself descended, 
through her father, the Duke de Penthievre, 
from the Count of Toulouse, legitimated son 
of Louis XIV., and of Mme. de Montespan. 

In 1785, when his father Philippe-Egalite, 
became Duke of Orleans, the young prince, 
according to family custom, received in his 
turn the title of Duke of Chartres, and was ap- 
pointed Colonel of the Dragoons. He was 



20 COMTE DE PARIS ; 



then twelve years old. These ridiculous pro- 
motions were, it is well known, customary 
under the old' regime. From the commence- 
ment of the revolution, Louis-Philippe, still a 
j^oung man, followed the example of his father, 
giving in, with eclat, his adhesion to the new 
ideas. This is the usual tactic adopted by the 
collateral branches in order to obtain popular- 
ity. 

He entered the National Guard, took for his 
only title that of Citizen of Paris, and had 
himself enrolled a member of the Society of 
the Jacobins. 

At the age of eighteen, he took part in the 
victories of Jemmapes and Valmy ; but in 
1Y93 he was proscribed, quitted the French 
army and retired to Mons, to the headquarters 
of the Prince of Coburg. 

But he did not wish at this time to fight in 
the ranks of foreigners against France, and, 
like many other French immigrants, he had 
to live by his talents and acquirements. As a 
humble professor in Switzerland, with a salary 
of 1,400 francs, he knew how to be content 
with these small resources, and found, in this 
more than modest position, the happiness of 
the philosopher. 

HIS COMING TO AMERICA. 

A little later he left this country and visited, 
nearly always on foot, the regions of the north 
of Europe. In 1796 he came to America in 



HIS GENEALOGY. 21 

order to secure the libedy of his mother and 
brothers, to whom the directoire refused all 
freedom except on condition of the eldest 
son's going far away. He settled down in 
Philadelphia, where his brothers, the Dukes 
of Montpensier and Beaujolais, joined him. 
During his stay here, as also at the time of his 
departure from Europe, he was greatly in- 
debted to Governor Morris, United States 
Minister in France, who generously assisted 
him with his purse and his influence, and ren- 
dered him all the services in his power. After 
several long travels in the States of the Union, 
and when the government was overturned by 
Bonaparte, the young Duke of Orleans re- 
turned to England and took up his abode at 
the Castle of Twickenham. 

In 1814 the fall of Napoleon terminated the 
exile of the family of Orleans. The Duke re- 
turned to France and allied himself with the 
Bourbons, whose first restoration had just 
taken place. Although creating him prince of 
the blood, and giving him a fortune of three 
hundred millions, Louis XVII I., nevertheless, 
treated him with a certain degree of distrust 
and coldness, rendered perfectly legitimate in 
view of the role played by the father and the 
son at the commencement of the French Eevo- 
lution. 

When the Hundred Days arrived the Duke 
of Orleans retired to England, and returned to 



COMTE DE PARIS 



France in the year 1807. In the midst of the 
bloody reactions of this epoch, he main- 
tained a prudent reserve, but without being 
a,ble to overcome the prejudices of the Bour- 
bon Louis XVIII., who saw in him a pos- 
sible heir to the throne, by means of a revo- 
lution, and who would not consent to grant 
him the title of Royal Highness, which he ob- 
tained later under Charles X. It seems that 
the old king well knew his relative's character, 
as is shown by the following incident. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 23 



IV. 

BIRTH OF THE DUKE OF BORDEAUX. 



SHAMEFUL INSINUATIONS. 



The Duchess of Berry, daughter of Francois 
I., King of the Two Sicilies, and of Marie- 
Clementine, Archduchess of Austria, married 
in 1816 her cousin the Duke of Berry, nephew 
of the unfortunate Louis XVI. and of Louis 
XVIIL, and second son of the Count of Artois 
(since Charles X.). She charmed the French 
court and attached to herself the somewhat 
fickle heart of her husband. At the age of 
twenty-two years, Louvel's dagger made her 
a widow. It is said that in her romantic grief 
she cut off all her hair, of a splendid blonde 
which poets have celebrated, and of which the 
duke was passionately fond. For two months 
she bore in her bosom a last and tardy scion of 
the ancient race of Hugues Capet, and the 
29th of September, 1S20, the duchess gave 
birth to a posthumous child^ who received the 
name of Henri-Charles-Ferdinand Marie-Dieu- 
donne,* Duke of Bordeaux. 

* Literally : Given by God. 



24 COMTE DE PARIS : 

This child was saluted as a blessing, and 
never before had the country been thrown into 
such a state of excitement. He was the latest 
offspring and the only hope of the dynasty. 
All France was in ecstacy — all France, except 
the younger branch of the house of Bourbon, 
which lost the throne of France at the very 
moment when it was about to occupy it. It 
was to this family a mortification and an an- 
noyance which it was unable to conceal. From 
this moment one would imagine that some 
occult power was at work to give credence to 
the impression that the pregnancy of the 
Duchess of Berry had been simulated, and that 
a borrowed baby had been presented to the 
nation as the legitimate heir of the throne. 
Caricatures, songs, pamphlets were dissemi- 
nated in profusion in the towns, in the suburbs, 
in the villages, and the d'Orleans were sup- 
posed to be the authors of this injurious propa- 
gand. The legitimist writers were unanimous 
in denouncing and censuring this manoeuvre. 
Mr. H. de Lourdoueir, in his book "La Revolu- 
tion c'est 1' Orleanisme,'' recalls the following 
saying, which is characteristic : 

"One word from this prince (the Duke of 
" Orleans) betrays the envious passions which 
"proximity to the throne had kindled in him. 
"When the birth of the Duke of Bordeaux 
was announced to him, he cried : ' Are we 
" then never to be anything in this country ?' 



HIS GENEALOGY. 25 

' Nothing ! He called nothing the position of 
' a prince of royal blood and the three hundred 
' millions that Louis XVIII. had given him ! 
' * * * Therefore, to make of this noth- 
' ing, something, he secretly renewed all his 
' practices with his father's former complices, 
' and he commenced this new phase of con- 
' spiracy by protesting in the English papers 
' against the birth of the legitimate heir to the 
' throne, basing this protestation upon infam- 
'ous calumnies; and when the king sought 
' to obtain from him a disavowal of this docu- 
' ment published in his name, he contented 
' himself with a verbal denial, shielding him- 
' self behin.d his dignity in order to refuse a 
'public disavowal." 

The chronicles of the times are full of 
piquant details of these scandals, held up to 
the public gaze, not only in France but abroad. 
Sensational articles were published in the 
Morning Chronicle under the initials S. A. S. ; 
and about the same time the Duke of Orleans 
adopted towards Marshal Suchet a course 
which greatly incensed the whole royal family. 
"Marshal," he said, "I know ^vell your 
' ' loyalty. You were a witness at the accouche- 
" ment of Mme., the Duchess of Berry ; is she 
" really the mother of a prince ? As really as 
"Monseigneur is the father of the Duke of 
"Chartres." 
These facts have not only been disseminated 



36 COMTE DE PARIS 



by the public voice, or in the gazettes and 
pamphlets of the period. They are related by 
the most serious historians and given in detail 
in the Histoire de Dix ans by Louis Blanc. 

But grave as are these grievances of the 
legitimists against the Orleanists, they are 
nothing compared with the incidents of the 
residence of the Duchess of Berry at the 
Castle of Blaye, as we shall see hereafter. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 37 



LOUIS-PHILIPPE'S ACCESSION TO THE 
THRONE. 



The morning after the revolution of July, 
1830, Louis-Philippe, whom King Charles X. 
had nominated lieutenant-general of the king- 
dom, entered Paris with the firing of cannon 
and the pealing of bells, and declared by a 
proclamation that he accepted the functions to 
which the confidence of the people called him, 
that he adopted the tricolored emblem — that 
of the nation — and that "the chart would 
henceforth be a reality." The Chambers were 
opened August 3d ; no notice was taken of the 
act of abdication which King Charles X. had 
signed at Rambouillet in favor of his grand- 
sou, the Duke of Bordeaux. The crown was 
offered to the Duke of Orleans, August 7th, 
by a majority of 210 votes. 

The Chamber of Peers came in the evening 
to acknowledge the new sovereign. While 
Charles X. with his family embarked at Cherb- 
ourg to go into exile. 



28 COMTE DE PARIS : 



VI. 
THE SECOND SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 



THE LAST OF THE CONDES. 



His Tragical Death. — Was He Murdered for His Millions? 



The commencement of the new reign was 
saddened by a tragic event, the dramatic death 
of the Prince of Conde, who had married at 
the age of fifteen, the Princess of Bourbon, 
paternal aunt of Louis -PhiHppe. Last scion 
of an illustrious family, but equally a stranger 
to the anxieties and perils of politics, the last 
of the Condes seemed to wish to throw into 
the background this name, which, by the death 
of his only son, the Duke of Enghien,* was 
on the point of becoming extinct, after having 
shone with such brilliancy in the last cen- 
turies of the monarchy. Confined to his little 
court of St. Leu or Chantilly, he indulged in 
hunting — his sole ambition. 

Deeply troubled in 1830 by the misfortunes 

* Shot by Bonaparte's order in the trenches of Vin- 
cennes, in 1804. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 29 

of his family, he did not deem it opportune to 
follow them into exile, and recognized without 
difficulty his nephew, Louis- Philippe as king 
of France. 

The feeble old man was then entirely under 
the influence of a woman, whose name has 
often resounded in the polemics of the papers 
and in the praetorium of the tribunals. She 
was an English woman, Sophia Dawes, nee 
Clarke, whose previous life was said to have 
been equivocal, and whom the prince had mar- 
ried to a gentleman of his household, Captain 
Baron de Feucheres, a loyal soldier, whose de- 
ceived good faith served to cover for some 
time the scandal of their illegitimate love. 
Endowed with a great spirit of intrigue, in- 
telligent and gracious, greedy, imperious, in- 
sinuating, the Baroness of Feucheres had by 
her ascendancy, obtained the testamentary 
gift of the domains of St. Leu and Boissy in 
1824, and later on sev^eral donations amounting 
to more than a million. But haunted by a 
secret uneasiness, fearing that the death of 
the prince would expose her to the attacks of 
heirs spoiled by her, and to the law suits to 
which she would be liable by reason of her 
use of undue influence, she had for a long time 
sought to unite her interests with those of the 
family of Louis Philippe, so as to procure for 
herself powerful patronage when needed. 

The truth respecting the relations of this 



30 COMTE DE PARIS 



woman with the Orleans' family, will probably 
never be known exactly. ^Vhat is certain is, 
that in 1827,- the pious Duchess-Marie-Amelie 
(since Queen of France), wrote her very gracious 
letters, encouraged her in her endeavors to have 
the Duke d'Aumale (son of Louis-Philippe), 
adopted by the prince as his heir, and warmly 
promised her her help in the name of a mother's 
gratitude. It is painful, without doubt, to see 
so virtuous a woman associate her maternal 
tenderness with such solicitations which, to 
say the least, were equivocal ; but this is an 
admitted fact. On his side, the duke followed 
this matter up with that passionate solicitude 
which the d'Orleans have always brought to 
bear upon their affairs of personal interest. 
Solicited, harassed on all sides, after long hesi- 
tation, being weary of the struggle, the Prince 
of Conde, finished by yielding, but not 
without cruel anxieties. The idea of leav- 
ing the heritage of the Condes, valued at 
three hundred millions, to the family of a regi- 
cide, seemed to him a forfeiture and an impiety. 
He however, contented hiaiself at the first with 
promises. The then Duke of Orleans had a will 
made out by one of his lawyers, Mi-. Dupin, 
in favor of his son, the Duke d'Aumale, which 
it v/as proposed to ipubmit to the prince for his 
signature. He, notwithstanding the promises 
which had been wrested from him, always 
sought to evade this and even considered the 



His GENEALOGY. 31 

i)e''essity of tearing himself away from the 
obsessions and despotism of the baroness, by 
flight. He was assailed by fears of all sorts 
even to forgetting himself and saying before 
others, "when once they have secured what 
they want, my days will run plenty of risks." 

At length after a fresh and exceedingly 
violent scene, between himself and Mme. de 
Feucheres, he decided upon making out and 
signing a will by which he instituted the Duke 
d'Anmale his universal legatee, and assured to 
the baroness a legacy of about ten millions. 
(30th August, 1829.) 

This decided action did not bring him tran- 
quility, and he gave way more and more to his 
puerile fears of old age and to his melancholy. 
The revolution of July happening here upon, 
increased the torments and troubles of the un- 
fortunate prince. He. had again reviewed his 
projects of flight, and he definitely fixed his 
departure for the 3 1st of August, 1830. The 
preparations were made- in secret, but it seems 
impossible that (he baroness was not made 
acquainted with them. On the evening of the 
26th of August the prince went tranquilly to 
bed as usual. No unwonted noise or move- 
ment was heard during the night. The next 
morning when his valet^ Lecomte, went to 
knock at his master's door, he received no 
reply. The door was shut from the inside, it 
had to be forced open. 



33 COMTE DE PARIS 



A frightful spectacle offered itself to the 
view of those present. The prince was hung, 
or rather, fastened to the window handle by 
means of two handkerchiefs rolled one in the 
other. The knees bent, the feet dragging on 
the carpet, so that in the last convulsions of 
life he had but to get on his feet to escape 
death. This circumstance set aside all hy- 
pothesis of suicide, and struck all those who 
witnessed it. Public opinion was deeply 
aroused by this tragic and mysterious event, 
and on bringing together a series of charac- 
teristic circumstances many persons were led 
to give it out as their firm belief that the prince 
had not taken away his own life, that he could 
not have done so under such conditions, and 
that he had been the victim of an assassina- 
tion. The Princes of Rohan, collateral heirs, 
began a trial against Madame de Feucheres for 
having made use of undue influence, which, 
however, they lost. This woman, it is need- 
less to say, was lying under the most terrible 
suspicions, and yet she was none the less re- 
ceived at the court, to the great stupefaction 
of public opinion, which called for a public 
inquest. An enquiry was commenced in the 
month of September, but nothing was ne- 
glected to stifle the affair. One judge, Mr. 
de la Huproie, showing himself resolved to 
find out the truth, was suddenly put on the 
retired list. The redoubtable problem was 



HIS GENEALOGY. 33 

never cleared up. It is well to remark that 
suspicions dared even to attach themselves to 
Louis-Philippe : Is fecit cui prodest — unjust 
accusation, doubtless, but which the new king 
would have nobly repelled by repudiating a 
succession, tainted with such suspicions, 
which however, he did not do. But also, 
if the Baroness of Feucheres was guilty 
of a crime, which has never been proved, 
it must not be inferred that the rleans' family 
have in any manner whatever been mixed up 
in such an abominable action. But the great 
fault of the then government was that every- 
thing that was necessary for a loyal and 
severe enquiry to be made was not done, so as 
to have brought the light of day to shine upon 
this mysterious drama. 



34 COMTE DE PARIS 



VII. 

WHERE APPEARS THE THIRD SKELETON 



THE ARREST OF THE DUCHESS DE BERRY. 



Her Shameful Treatment and Her Public Dishonor. 



After the insurrection of 1832 the duchess 
directed her steps towards La. Vendee, where 
a great royahst movement, they had told her, 
would signal her arrival. But the peasants 
did not arm for the descendant of Henry IV. 
Madame wandered from one retreat to another, 
taking everywhere her hopes and her obsti- 
nate energy, but she was compelled at length 
to take refuge at Nantes in the mysterious 
hiding place which her friends had prepared 
for her. She remained there five months, 
engaged in the most active correspondence. 
The police were almost despairing of finding 
her, when the secret of her retreat was sold to 
Mr. Thiers for 500,000 francs by a converted 
Jew (Simon Deutz), mixed up with the legiti- 
mist plots and who possessed the princess' 
confidence. The miserable fellow left at once 



HIS GENEALOGY. 35 

for Nantes, being both watched and aided by 
the pohce, and obtained two interviews with 
his confiding victim. As he came out from 
the last one, the authorities, informed by him, 
invest the house, but, after the most minute 
perquisitions, find no one. The duchess and 
her confidants had had time to hide themselves 
in an obscure chamber which had been made 
behind the movable fireplace, and of whose 
existence Deutz was ignorant. They remained 
there sixteen hours, but at length gave them- 
selves up, being half suffocated by a fire 
which the gendarmes had lighted for want of 
a better occupation. Up to the present time 
all her adventures had a certain color of 
heroism which compensated for what there 
was of extravagance in them. The misfor- 
tunes of the Duchess of Berry only really com • 
menced, however, with her captivity in the 
Castle of Blaye, where she was sent by the 
government and placed under the surveillance 
of General Bugeaud. The unfortunate prin- 
cess was destined, as the denouement of her 
adventurous odyssey, to drink to the bottom 
the cup of shame and bitterness, and the 
government of her relative, Louis- Philippe, 
avenged itself upon her in such a manner that 
its immorality has been most justly con- 
demned. In the month of January they 
learned that the captive was suffering, and 
that the symptoms of her" indisposition led to 

2b 



36 GOMTE DE PARIS : 

the supposition that she was enceinte. Doc- 
tors were sent, and soon there remained no 
doubt on the subject. She herself, led to it 
by her condition, at length yielded and de- 
clared that she had been secretly married in 
Italy to Count Lucchesi-Palli. The govern- 
ment, uninfluenced by the painfulness of her 
position, instead of keeping silent and sending 
to Palermo this conquered and henceforth 
powerless enemy, gave to her declaration the 
publicity of the Moniteur, employed every 
means to obtain a public confirmation of her 
state, and went so far as to have witnesses at 
her confinement, of which they drew up an 
official report. Louis-Philippe had now no 
political advantage to gain from his unfortu- 
nate relative, whom he sent, humiliated and 
broken down, to Palermo. 

This shameful act created enormous excite- 
ment in France, and even those who were 
hostile to the fallen dynasty protested with 
profound indignation against a revelation of 
such a nature. The reputation of General 
Bugeaud, who was a loyal soldier, and who 
had accepted the ungrateful mission of being 
this woman's jailer, to certify to her shame, 
was tarnished by it for the remainder of his 
life ; and this act, motived by reasons of state 
policy, has never been condoned by history. 
How much greater reason is there, then, for 
the strong feelings of resentment of the legiti- 



HIS GENEALOGY. 37 

mists' partisans, who will, on this account, 
bear an eternal rancour against the d'Orleans, 
the descendants of King Louis-Philippe, to 
their latest generation. 



3S COMTE DE PARIS 



VIII. 
LOUIS-PHILIPPE'S STAR PALING. 



HIS EXILE — HIS DEATH. 



In the beginning of the year 1848, Louis- 
Philippe's star was paling on the political 
horizon, sombre clouds gathered and presaged 
a storm, electoral and parliamentary reform 
were loudly called for, but the Chamber with- 
stood them. The agitation increased, and at 
length the revolution of February broke out, 
the Republic was proclaimed, and the king was 
exiled with the princes, his sons. 

Louis-Philippe had been a modest, peaceful, 
and even homely king. He was wanting in 
that grandeur which in royalty is imposing ; 
having brought even to the throne habits of 
economy and foresight, he had asked the 
Chambers for doweries for all his children. 
Monetary preoccupations have always been 
a salient feature of the character of the d'Or- 
leans. In Louis-Philippe's case, cupidity had 
become a state of senile mania, a fixed idea. 
One of the chief preoccupations of his peaceful 



HIS GENEALOGY. 89 

reign was the establishment of his children in 
life. He married one of his daughters to the 
King of Belgium, another one to Prince Au- 
gust, of Saxe-Coburg ; his son Joinville to the 
sister of the Emperor of Brazil, and although 
his son the Duke d'Aumale was afflicted with 
a fortune of more than three hundred millions, 
that did not prevent him from being uneasy 
as to their future. He wrote despondingly to 
his Minister Guizot, in 1846 : " We shall never 
" establish anything in France, and a day will 
"come when my children will not even have 
" 6read toeat." ^ Auri sacra fames ! * * *' 
Louis-Philippe died two years after the Rev- 
olutior, in his retreat at Claremont (England), 
where Marie- Amelie surrounded him with the 
most devoted attention. She herself lived to 
an advanced age, having lost in 1851 her 
daughter, Louise Marie, Queen of the Belgians, 
two of her daughters-in-law and several of 
her grandsons. She passed away peacefully in 
the midst of her own, the 21th of March, 1866. 

HIS CHILDREN. 

Of his marriage with Marie- Amelie, Louis- 
Philippe had for issue eight children — the 
Duke of Orleans ; Louise, Queen of Belgium ; 
Mai ie, Princess of Wurtemburg ; the Duke of 
Nemours*; Clementine, married to the Duke 

* General the Duke de Nemours, born in 1814, was 
supposed rightly or wrongly, to be a partisan of the ideas 



40 COMTE^DE PARIS 



of SaxeCoburg; the Prince of Joinville,t the 
Duke d'Auma]e,:j: and the Duke of Montpen- 
sier.§ His five sons were brought up at the 

of the foriner regime, a prince of a cold and haughty dis ■ 
position, which had caused him to be called the " dude of 
the family," and he was far from being popular. 

The 3rd of February, 1831, the Belgium Congress chose 
him for king, but Louis-Philippe, who saw that the 
European powers were hostile to this election, would not 
give his son the authorization to ascend the throne of Bel- 
gium, and followed the same line of conduct in connection 
with the throne of Greece. 

The duke fought with his brothers in Algeria, and was in 
command of several expeditions against the Emir, the 
Kabyles and Oran. 

The D.ike de Nemours had two sons: Le Count d'Eu, 
born in 1842, who married Dom Pedro's daughter and the 
Duke d'Alengon, born m 1844, who was authorized in 1871, 
to enter the French army as captain of artillery. 

f The Prince of Joinville was a commander in the 
navy and attained the post of Vice-Admiral. He dis- 
tinguished himself in Mexico, then in Morocco, where he 
took part in the naval attack on their posts, and also in 
the taking of Mogador. It was the Prince of Joinville who 
was chosen by the king to go to Saint Helena to bring 
home the mortal remains of Napoleon. 

X The Duke d' Aumale. — His exploits as a general. Of all 
the sons of Louis-Philippe, he is the most distinguished. 
A remarkable episode of the war of Algeria, which 
lasted several years, was the taking of the " Smala" by 
the Duke. This young prince had been placed in com- 
mand of a French column which was to penetrate to the 
interior of the desert where Abd-el-Kader, the Arab Emir 
had encamped his family and his servants. The " Smala" 
of Abd-el-Kader contained a numerous population, rich 
treasures and a quantity of beasts of value. The Duke 
d'Aumale did not hesitate to attack it although he had only 
500 men with him. Giving the command to charge, 
he rushes forward with his cavalry, and the troops fall like 
a deluge in the midst of the frightened women and de- 
fenceless Arabs. The confusion is inexpressible, the tents 



HIS GENEALOGY. 41 

College Henry IV., and received, consequently, 
a public education. 

are overturned ; the provisions, jewels, rich hangings and 
accessories of all kinds, are scattered on all sides ; the 
horses eat the dust, the flocks of sheep take flight; in vain the 
sons of the desert endeavor to struggle with their impetuous 
enemies ; nothing is able to withstand the French cavalry. 
Masters of the position, our soldiers take more than 400 
prisoners and carry off immense quantities of spoils (1843). 
This day was decisive in its results ; a defeat was inflicted 
upon the Emu- which was the first step in the direction of 
complete submission. The exploit of the Duke d'Aumale 
has been reproduced by the painter, Horace Vernet, in a 
gigantic and splendid picture, which has been placed in 
the museum of Versailles. He presided at the Court which 
sentenced to death the traitor Bazaine. The Duke is a dis- 
tinguished man of letters ; his literary works have obtained 
for him a seat in the French Academy, and his social charms 
have made him an important personality in the Parisian 
worxd. The government has allowed him to return and to 
reside in France. 

§The Duke de Montpensier, youngest son of Louis- 
Phillipe, born in 1824, served as his brothers in Algeria, 
then visited the countries of the East, and married in 
1846, the sister of the Queen of Spain, Isabella II. The 
duke, become Infant of Spain, settled down in that 
country after 1848, and had to take a part in all the crises 
which agitated his adopted country. In March, 1870, he 
killed in a duel the Prince Henri de Bourbon, brother 
of the ex-king of Spain, Frangois d' Assise. 

He had six children, two sons and four daughters, one 
of whom married her first cousin, the Count de Paris. 



43 COMTE DE PARIS 



IX. 
THE COMTE DE PARIS' FATHER. 



A GALLANT SOLDIER. 



A Favorite of the People — His Tragic and Premature Death. 



Ferdinand - Philippe -Louis-Charles - Henri, 
Duke of Chartres, eldest son of the King Louis- 
Philippe, was born at Palermo, the 3rd Sept., 
1810. On his father's accession to the throne, 
his title of Duke of Chartres was exchanged 
for that of Duke d'Orleans, and prince of the 
royal blood. 

Sent to Lyons in 1831, to re establish order, 
we find him endeavoring, by his extreme mod- 
eration, to calm the popular irritation and using 
his influence to prevent those who had been led 
into rebellion by hunger and want, from being 
treated with rigour. The cholera, which 
ravaged Paris in 1832, furnished him with a 
fresh opportunity for distinguishing himself. 
He visited the hospitals when the scourge was 
at its worst and received on this occasion a 
medal from the Municipal Council of Paris. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 43 

At the end of this same year, ou the outbreak 
of the war with Belgium, he commanded the 
brigade of the Vanguard, assisted at the oper- 
ations which led to the taking of Antwerp, and 
fought bravely during the attack of St. Laurent. 
In 1835, the Duke went to Africa, was wounded 
at the battle of Habrah, fell seriously ill from 
the effects of long sustained fatigues, and re- 
turned to France. In 1836, when traveling in 
Germany, he met the Princess of Mecklenburg, 
whom he married, in Paris, the 30th May, 1837. 
On the occasion of the fetes given in honor of 
the event, many persons were crushed to death 
on the Champ de Mars. On hearing of these 
misfortunes. Princess Helena cried out, " It is 
the same as at the fetes of Louis XYI. What 
a frightful omen!" During one of the sittings 
of the Chamber of Peers, the Marquis of Dreux- 
Breze, having blamed the Duke for having 
married a protestant, he replied in these re- 
markable words: "I see inscribed in our fun- 
damental code, in the first line, religious liberty 
as the most precious of all the liberties granted 
to the French; I do not understand why the 
Koyal Family alone should be excluded from 
this benefit, which is perfectly in harmony 
with the reigning sentiments of French so- 
ciety ." 

In 1839 the Duke of Orleans returned to Al- 
geria, assumed the command of a division, and 
crossed the "portes de fer," hitherto deemed un- 



44 COMTE DE PARIS : 

passable. Next year, accompanied by his 
young brother, the Duke d'Aumale, he con- 
ducted his las.t and most brilHant campaign. 
The courage which he showed at the battles of 
Affroum, 1' Oued Ger, the Bois des Oliviers, at 
the taking of Medeah, and especially at that of 
Tenia de Mauzaia, when he commanded in 
person the attacking column, do him the great- 
est honor. 

Shortly afterwards he bade adieu to the army 
of Africa and returned to Paris, where he or- 
ganized the Chasseurs a Pied de Vincennes. 
He was returning from the waters of Plom- 
bieres, where he had taken his wife, and was 
arranging to join the camp cf St Omer, when, 
going to Neuilly to bid good-bye to his family, the 
horses of his carriage darted off in front of the 
Porte-Maillot. Was it that he wished to jump 
out, or that he was thrown out by a shock, he 
fell head foremost on the pavement, and rup- 
tured the vertebral column. Borne to a neigh- 
boring house, he expired a few moments after, 
the 13th July, 1842. After having been ex- 
posed five days in Notre-Dame, his body was 
transported to the family vault at Dreux. 

He possessed every quality necessary to se- 
duce the masses and would probably have 
made a popular king, and have saved the 
d'Orleans monarchy in 1848, had not this 
tragic event carried him off so unfort- 
unately. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 45 

Of his marriage with Princess Helena he 
had two sons. 

LOUIS-PHILIPPE, ALBERT D'ORLEANS, 
COAJTE DE PARIS, 

born in Paris the 24th of August, 1838, and 
R obert-Philippe -Louis-Eugene Ferdinand, 

Duke of Chartres,* 
born in Paris, in 1840. 

* The Duke of Chartres married — June 11th, 1863, at 
Kingston, on Thames, — Frangoise, the daughter of his 
uncle, the Prince of Joinville, following in this the exam- 
ple set by his brother, the Comte de Paris. It is evident 
that these inter-marriages were entered into with the ob- 
ject of retaining in the family their immense fortunes. 

Of their marriage they had issue : 

Marie-Amelie FranQoise-Helene, born in 1865 and mar- 
ried in 1885 to Waldemar, Prince of Denmark. 

Henri, born in 1867. 

Marguerite, bom in 1 869. 

Jean-Pierre-Clemence- Marie, born in 1874. 



46 COMTE DE PARIS 



X. 

THE COMTE DE PARIS. 



His Childhood. — His Escape From the Revolution. — His 
Youth and Travels. — Soldier, Author, and Linguist. 



HE ENTERS THE U. S. ARMY. 



His Sudden Departure. — His Marriage. — His Conspiracies 
Against the French Republic. — His Banishment. 



At the time of the revolution, of February, 
1848, the Comte de Paris was barely ten years 
old. His childhood was spent abroad, in Ger- 
many, England, Spain and America, but the 
remembrance of the 24th of February has 
never, he says, been effaced from his memory. 

On the morning of the 23d, they came to in- 
form theComte de Paris that the masters who 
ought to have given him his lessons could not 
come. Not being old enough to understand 
exactly all that was taking place, he was never- 
theless able to take note of the preoccupa- 
tions of his mother and of the other persons 
who were about. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 47 

The 2-lth,vvhen the Duchess of Orleans came 
to kiss her son, she said to him, "My dear 
child, you must know that grave events are 
taking' place ; you cannot understand them ; 
but pray to God and he will, perhaps, turn 
aside the great misfortunes with which France 
is threatened." 

In the morning Mr. Adolphe Eegnier, the 
young prince's tutor, since a member of the 
Institute, gave him, notwithstanding, his les- 
sons as usual, but they had soon to leave the 
room which looked out on the Rue de Eivoli ; 
they expected any moment a fight ; the prince 
went to the apartments looking on to the 
garden. 

As he was playing under the eyes of his 
tutor the door opened suddenly and the Duch- 
ess of Orleans entered, saying to Mr. Regnier, 
" It is not a riot, it is a revolution! " The child 
had too often heard the previous revolutions 
talked about, not to understand already the 
significance of the word. 

The Duchess of Orleaos, seeing the turn that 
events were taking, went in to the queen ; she 
began to feel very uneasy for her sou, and 
resolved not to be separated from him, wished 
to keep him near her. Mr. Regnier had fol- 
lowed her ; the child and his tutor were put in 
the bedroom which separated Louis- Philippe's 
cabinet from that of the queen, Marie- Amelie. 
There, with a certain degree of sang-iroid, the 



48 COMTE DE PAEIS 



tutor, not to allow his pupil to give way to 
vague uneasiness, tried to continue the lesson 
already commenced. 

The prince was then translating the Epitome 
Historice Sacrw, of Lhomond ; he has never 
forgotten that they had reached that portion of 
the history of the Maccabees where the young 
heroes perished in a caldron of boiling oil. Ihe 
image of this caldron was for a long time 
mixed up in his imagination with the real 
scenes in which he took a part. 

Soon they came to inform the king that the 
troops assembled on the Place du Carrousel 
wished to see him. Louis-Philippe went out, 
and the child went to the window to see his 
grandfather pass them in review. Emotion 
had also taken possession of him, and he was 
visibly impressed by the cries of "Long live the 
king!" which were still heard on all sides. He 
was also much struck at hearing the name of 
Marshal Bugeaud frequently pronounced. 

Time passes on ; the king was still in the 
courtyard ; then all at once the door of the 
cabinet opens suddenly, and Louis Philippe, 
standing erect in the doorway, says, with a 
firm, serious voice, "lam going to abdicate." 

This word pierced the Comte de Paris' mind 
like a flash of lightning, and with an energy 
beyond his years, he ran to his tutor, saying, 
"No, it is impossible." He was naturally 
unable to take into account the terrible 



HIS GENEALOGY. 49 

responsibilities which weigh upon modern 
royalty ; but he understood at once that if his 
grandfather abdicated they would put him in 
his place on a gilded throne, he would have to 
figure in all the official ceremonies, the eyes of 
all would be turned upon him ; this idea was 
insupportable to him. 

Nevertheless the royal chamber became de- 
serted. Here and there, on the Place du 
Carousel, guns were fired. The young prince 
is no longer allowed to look out of the window. 
The Duchess of Orleans goes to her apart- 
ments ; she finds in the Gallery de la Paix a 
few members of the household who join her. 

She descends to the pavilion de Marsan, 
where a few political men are assembled, 
amongst others Mr. Dupin and Admiral 
Baudin, who urge her to go to the Chamber 
of Deputies. She remains but a moment, and 
leaves by the Court du Carousel. 

The court is empty ; one hears every now 
and then a gun fired, as if at random, at the 
Tuilleries ; they pass on under the pavilion de 
1' Horloge, and thus abandon the Palace of 
the Tuilleries. 

^Vhile crossing its beautiful garden the 
count hears it said that they will find car- 
riages on the Place de la Concorde, and that 
they will take them and go for a drive around 
Paris, and thus save the situation. This ad- 
vice had been given by some political men 



50 COMTE DE PARIS : 

who had penetrated into the garden. At the 
railings of' the drawbridge they stop ; the car- 
riages are not there, and a compact and sway- 
ing mob invades the space occupied by a 
battery of artillery, whose movements it 
paralyzes. 

The commandant places himself at the dis- 
posal of the duchess. Mr, Adolphe Regnier 
recognizes in the officer one of his intimate 
friends, and names him to his pupil. It was 
Tiby, chief of squadron, who, in later years, 
as a retired colonel, was killed in the Rue de 
la Paix by the balls of the Commune, on the 
day of the pacific manifestation. 

At length the Duchess of Orleans is informed 
that the Duke of Nemours will accompany her 
and her sons to the Chamber of Deputies. He 
arrives at the same time, and the group, which 
he has joined at the garden gate, wends its 
way through the crowd and reaches the Palais- 
Bourbon. 

The Comte de Paris had been present for the 
first time, a few days previously, at the open- 
ing of the Chambers. The aspect of the as- 
sembly was therefore -not new to him. The 
deputies were in session, and the hall in 
which their deliberations had been held had 
not yet been invaded. The Duchess of Or- 
leans and her sons entered and took their 
places in that part of the hall reserved for: 
deputies. . 



HIS GENEALOGY. 51 

At the first the Comte de Paris was unable 
to clearly understand what was going on. He 
was seated near his mother, at the foot of the 
bureau on the left. After having heard from 
that position the first speakers who succeeded 
each other at the tribune, the duchess had to 
move up to one of the highest seats in the 
centre. Soon the count heard some one say 
to his mother : "It is Mr. Marie who is speak- 
ing." This name, which seemed to him to be 
a woman's, struck him, and he will never 
forget it. 

He looks about him and smiles at Mr. de 
Rerausat, seated at his side, then, a few 
moments after, he sees someone coming 
towards them, whose shock of hair has ever 
remained in his young memory as one of the 
most remarkable things which he saw at this 
sitting; it was Mr. Cremieux, a future member 
of the National Defense in 18T0-Y1, who wrote 
a few words on a sheet of paper and handed it 
to the duchess, saying : ''Here are the words 
which I advise you to address to the Chamber." 

The Comte de Paris no longer paid any at- 
tention to what was said at the tribune, he 
was too much occupied with what was going 
on around him. His mother, however, was 
surrounded by many of the deputies, some ad- 
vising her to speak, and others, on the con- 
trary to wait. 

It was then that the boy heard distinctly the 



52 COMTE DE PARIS : 

violent blows which shook the. doors of the 
hall. The rioters howl, the doors burst open, 
the crowd rushes into the hall, the tumult is 
terrible. The duchess and her sons are in 
danger. Mr. de Remusat places himself in 
front of the Comte de Paris to shield his body. 
As the danger is imminent, they decide the 
duchess to leave the Chamber ; she fears for 
the life of her children and consents to go out 
with them by one of the relief passages. But 
in this confusion, the Comte de Paris and the 
Duke de Chartres are pushed or rather dragged 
by the crowd, some threatening, some en- 
deavouring to protect them. They stop at last 
at a distant room of the president's, situated 
on the ground floor, where the invaders have 
not penetrated. There they look to see that 
none are missing ; the duchess of Orleans finds 
only her eldest son. Mr. Regnier, in the con- 
fused and hurried exit, had been for a moment 
separated from him, but was enabled almost 
immediately to join him again and brought 
him to his mother. 

The Duke de Chartres had also been borne 
away in another direction ; and as the duchess, 
anxious, wished to turn back, they assure her 
that the young prince is safe. The duke had been, 
in effect knocked down by the crowd ; but Mr. 
Lipman, brother of one of the sergeants of the 
Chamber, picked him up and carried him away 
to the apartment which his brother occupied 



HIS GENEALOGY. 53 

in the dependencies of the palace and where 
abeady a few moments previously, he had 
offered shelter to Mr. Kegnier and his ycungest 
son. 

But they are still too near ; the tide ad- 
vances, they are again obliged to move ; they 
descend into the garden and go out by the 
Eue de Lille. There they find a cab ; the 
Duchess of Orleans gets in with her sons ; 
two national guards, Messrs. L. Martinet and 
David, follow them and offer to protect her ; 
the vehicle takes the direction of the Hotel 
des Invalides, where the fugitives take shelter 
in a room, in which they find Marshal Molitor, 
and then they part for their long exile. 

Brought up in the little town of Eisenach — 
where his mother had taken up her residence — 
and after completing his literary studies, the 
count set himself seriously to the study 
of the applied sciences. 

^ Numerous excursions in Europe made him 
familiar with the ideas and languages of 
several foreign countries, specially of England, 
where his paternal relatives now resided. 

After making, with his brother, a long voy- 
age in the East, the comte wrote a relation of 
his adventures, which was published under 
the title ^'Damascus and Lebanon " (London, 
1861.) 

The Comte de Paris had been residing some 
time in England when the War of Secession 



54 COMTE DB PARIS : 

broke out in the United States. He embarked 
with his brother, the Duke de Chartres, for 
the New World, and, as he wished to draw 
attention to himself, he entered the Federal 
army as a volunteer. Both were at once 
nominated staff-captains (28fth September, 
1861), and were attached as aides-de-camp to 
McClellan, then at the head of the army of 
the Potomac; made under his orders a fruit- 
less campaign against Eichmond, assisted at 
the siege of York-Town, at the battles of 
Williamsburg, Fair- Oaks, Gaine's Mill, at the 
retreat of the Federal army on the James 
Eiver. Then, for reasons variously appre- 
ciated, they both left the Federal army and 
returned to Europe in 1863. 

Married the 30th of May, 1864, to Princesse 
Marie-Isabella, daughter of his uncle, the 
Duke de Montpensier, the Comte de Paris has 
two sons and four daughters.* The eldest, 
son and heir, 

PRINCE LOUIS-PHILIPPE-ROBERT d'ORLEANS, 

Born at York House, near Twickenham, the 
6th February, 1869, is the same who, on attain- 
iug his majority, was recently condemned to 
two years' imprisonment for infringing the 

* Marie-Amelie-Helene, born in 1865, married in 1686 to 
Charles, Crown Prince, and to-day King of Portugal, 
Helene-Louise-Henriette, born in 1871, 
Marie-Isabelle, born in 1878, 
Louise-Frangoise, born in 1882, and 
Ferdinand-Fransois, born in 1884, 



HIS GENEALOGY. 55 

laws of exile, his sentence being, however, re- 
mitted by President Carnot two months after- 
wards. 

When war was declared against Prussia the 
Comte de Paris, as well as the other princes 
of his family, asked permission to enter the 
French army in any grade whatsoever. Their 
application was rejected, the 11th August, by 
the legislative body. 

Eeturning to France after the abrogation of 
the laws of exile, the Comte de Paris held 
himself at first aloof from all politics, but, un- 
fortunately for himself, he did not continue in 
this wise course. 

His father, the Duke d'Orleans, had written 
in his will : " Whether the Comte de Paris be 
"king or remain an unknown and obscure 
" defender of a cause to which we all belong, 
" he must above all be a man of his times and 
" of the nation, the impassioned and exclusive 
" servitor of France and of the Revolution." 

Forgetful of the paternal wishes, the Comte 
de Paris, following up a series of preparatory 
negociations which lasted some months, at a 
time when the monarchical party, after having 
overthrown Thiers, seemed completely master 
of the situation, and had inaugurated against 
the Republic and the Republicans the Govern- 
ment of Combat, the Comte de Paris went to 
Frohsdorf the 5th August, 18Y3, to make his 
submission, saying to the Count of Chambord, 



56 COMIE DE PARIS 



who, as is well known, had no offspring : '' I 
" come to pay you a visit which has been for 
" a long time on my mind . I salute in you, in 
"the name of' all the members of my family 
" and in my own name, not only the chief of 
" our house, but also the only representative 
" of monarchical principles in France." 

By this step the Comte de Paris, who had 
become the presumptive heir of the monarchy 
of divine right, aimed a blow at the Orleanist 
party, which considered him its chief. The 
Eepublic has made the mistake of showing 
itself too generous to him and to his family. 
Forty millions, received immediately after the 
Franco-Prussian War, and high grades in the 
army could not satisfy their inordinate ambi- 
tion. They began to conspire. Then the 
Eepublic finished where it should have 
begun. In '83 it voted the laws of exile 
against all the heirs of the families who 
had reigned in France, and took from 
them their grades in the army, to which they 
had no right whatsoever. 

Physically, the Comte de Paris is powerful 
and quite tall, very blond and becoming now 
gray ; he has the essentially German type. 

Morally, he is an intelligent man. • Besides 
his history of the War of Secession, he has 
published a certain number of volumes which 
have met with fair success. 



HIS GENEALOGY. 67 



XI. 

[Conclusion.] 

FRENCH OPINION OF THE PRINCES. 



In France the Princes of Orleans are neither 
beloved nor hated. Apart from any personal 
esteem which they may inspire, indifference is 
the only sentiment which they call forth. 

Politically speaking, love of money has killed 
them. After the Franco-German War, when 
France, still bleeding, mutilated and crushed, 
was almost too weak to raise herself from 
beneath the terribly heavy burden of the fifteen 
billions imposed upon her by her disasters, the 
princes, with a heartless indifference to her 
sufferings, found means through the then 
existing reactionary government to wrest from 
the National Treasury forty millions, which 
they unhesitatingly appropriated. To say the 
least, the moment was ill chosen, and everyone 
must feel that it would have been an act of 
generous patriotism on their part had they 
abandoned that sum for the benefit of their 
unhappy country. But they thought other- 



58 COMTE DE PARIS : HIS GENEALOGY. 

wise. France, therefore, paid them, but at the 
same time repudiated them, and she is to day 
no more royahst than Bonapartist. Nothing 
remains of its' former monarchical constitution. 
For the last twenty years that she governs 
herself, tranquilly, without evil passions, with- 
out injurious provocations, without any kind 
of fanaticism, she shows to the world that she 
is perfectly capable of directing her course, 
without tutors, without protectors, without 
the aid of any authority whatsoever. She has 
resolved to remain irrevocably attached to 
democratic principles and to tolerate no longer 
any masters, should they declare themselves 
sent by God or pretend to be the elect of the 
people ; and, if peradventure the noble count 
should ever manifest the pretension to com- 
mand France under the title of Philippe VII., 
she would undoubtedly answer him with those 
so well deserved words which Elizabeth sent 
to his Homonyme, Philippe II : " Ad grcecas, 
bone rex, fiant mandata calendas. * *" 



[the end.] 



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